Thursday, October 1, 2009

Hurricanes Preview

How's they get the name: The Hurricanes found their moniker in 1926 prior to their first game. The game has been postponed by a hurricane. A Miami football player, Porter Norris, suggested the team be named the Hurricanes. Presumably, Porter did not graduate with a language arts degree. Returning starters: 8 offense, 7 defenseNFL passing yards by alums: 125,231 by quarterbacksDraft History:313 drafteesHot/Cold: Frigid. The Canes were left cold and wet after a arse-whooping at the hands of the Virginia Tech Hokies last week. The Skinny: these are not your father's Miami Hurricanes. Actually, if you're in your twenties and reading this, and your father is a Miami Hurricane, you probably don't know it anyway. Pardon me, I digress. "The U" as it's become known, was one of the premier programs from 1983 - 2003, and had a remarkable run 14 year of first round NFLers from 1995-2008. In 2001, former OU and OSU assistant Larry Coker took over the reigns from Butch Davis, won a national championship his first season, then drove the wagon in the ditch. Randy Shannon has uprighted the wagon, tricked it up with some hydraulics, a sound system and some sweet spinners and the Hurricanes are on their way back to being a top 10 programsRandom stat: According to the Miami game notes, "Of the 20 seniors on this year's squad, eight have already earned degrees, while the remaining 11 are all on course to graduate either in December of 2009 or May of 2010." Apparently the missing senior was contributing to the media guide.Random stat 2: The Sooners have not beaten Miami FL in South Florida since 1975.Random stat 3: Of Oklahoma's 11 offensive starters for last year's NCG, 2 are starting Saturday night (Chris Brown and Trent Williams) and only one of those at the same position (Williams).How we see it: I see the Sooners prevailing in a close one. I think the pass rush and the zone blitzing by the Sooners will put pressure on Jacory Harris, and the defense should prevail over an improving Canes offense. On the other side of the ball, the U is just not the U of old. The Canes stats are distorted somewhat due to timing - they've played three conference games so far, not a string of cupcakes - but they currently rank 86th in rushing defense and 89th in pass efficiency defense. Gone are the days of a punt returning weaving through a punt coverage unit, the Canes rank 117th in punt returns, averaging 2 yards per return. While the Sooners are not as dominant offensively as they were last year, they still have the offensive firepower with Broyles and Murray, and Jones is quite serviceable as a backup QB.

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Sooners were people that left early in the Oklahoma Land Run of 1889. Boomers were a group of citizens that had illegally entered Indian Territory earlier in the 80s in an effort to open it up for white settlement. (A special shout out to Rob M for the correction.) For some reason, my blessed alma mater chose the nickname Sooners for the name of the athletic teams. Some of our foes refer to us as LandThieves, since a Sooner is someone who cheated and got to the land before they were supposed to. For some reason, the tagline, "Sooners, cheating since 1889" has never caught on. At least we're not the Oklahoma Thunder or Wind.